Fault of Delay
by PlasticBinch
Summary: Ace was away to visit the old gang for a bit. He’s been dating Murdoc for a while and has been living with him in London. He flies back to London to be with his boyfriend.


Static. That was the first noise that came over the loudspeaker for the second time.

Ace groaned, "I swear ta god-"

"United flight 244 will be postponed for another hour due to maintenance, we're sorry for the delay."

"Why do I always flight United..." the green skinned man muttered in annoyance.

Ace overheard the other passengers groan, no one wanted to be delayed from seeing family, not this time of year.

"...You've got to be kidding me! I've got three kids! I'm not going to be away from family for the Holidays!" A woman with short brown hair screamed at the flight attendant.

While it sucked that he would probably miss his connection flight and have to figure out how to get a motel room with a big lack of cash on him, but it clearly wasn't the young flight attendant's fault. He could sympathize with her as she tried to work though the situation before the mother asked to speak to her boss. As if that'd fix the plane.

After a few minutes of looking out the window of the Newark terminal to see a few mechanics in neon yellow vests work on the plane. Ace got out of his seat, picked up his carry on and walked several feet to the other wall where five pay phones stood. He took out and dug through his wallet to find a few of quarters to pay for the international call.

Those calls always had to be short on account of how expensive they were.

He put eleven quarters into the payphone and put the phone itself up to his ear, it rang and rang and rang. Murdoc answered on the fifth ring.

"...Murdoc Niccals, who do I owe the pleasure?" Ace could always hear the cocky grin on his face when he answered, even when it the call woke him up. He had forgotten until right then.

"'Doc. It's me-"

"The hell are ya callin' so early for? I'm sure you can add eight hours to the time on yer watch, yeah? it's three in the bloody morning," he complained, cutting Ace off.

"Forgot yer in a pissy mood when I wake ya up," he grinned.

He sighed, "...it's fine... you make it in yet?"

"No... haven't even made on board yet just wanted to tell you that my flight's runnin' late, I'm hopin' fer it to work out."

"Tha's a load of bollocks. That sounds why I don't fly." Murdoc, from Ace's experience, absolutely hated flying. Of course he'd birch about his hatred for airplanes and flying as a whole.

"You don't fly because you'd loose it before we even took off."

"You don't know why I hate planes. They're bloody terrifying... y'er thousands of meters in the air, in a shitty metal box with a buncha knobs."

"I didn't think I'd get ya rantin' 'bout this topic, again-"

"I don't rant! I-"

A voice cut Murdoc off, "To continue this call, please put in an amount of four fifty."

He sighed, "Hold on a sec, 'Doc, gotta put in more change."

"Just hang up. I'll see ya soon enough."

"Okay, I'll see ya soon-"

He realized Murdoc hung up before he responded, or it ended the call. It wouldn't have been unusual for the ladder.

Ace sighed, he hung the phone back on the hook.

He went over to the window to look out and wait since someone took his seat before he came back. Another half hour passed, the actor looked out at the sky.

It was clear, definitely not a bad day for flying by the look of it. Wasn't even windy when he entered the airport either. He could only hope that could be said for around Newark so his connection flight would transfer over smoothly.

The last thing Ace wanted was to have to get a hotel room for the night and possibly have to pay for or try to arrange another flight to London. He just wanted to be back in their flat, he was exhausted.

Another twenty minutes and a short-lived static noise came from the intercom system, it was loud and irritating.

"Flight 244 will now be boarding momentarily," the same flight attendant's overly chipper voice rang out.

"Thank God," someone spoke under their breath in hearing range of him.

Everyone waiting around the gate seemed to have a major switch in mood. Ace was relieved by the news.

He tapped his nails on the uncomfortable plastic chair, waiting to hear his row be called. It didn't take that long, only five more minutes, though it felt more like an hour for row fourteen to be called.

He sighed in relief and stood up, picked up his bag once again.

Ace walked over to the line and took out his seat ticket. It took a few minutes before he made it over to the flight attendant who was checking tickets. She scanned the ticket and handed it back to him.

"Have a nice flight."

Ace walked down the ramp and into the plane, the pilots and two of the flight attendants were standing near the door, he passed by them and went over to his seat. He had a window seat because looking outside made him feel less cramped in the seat.

Some tall guy sat next to him in the isle seat after Ace had put his bag up and he sat in his own seat. The guy had red hair and was looking towards the left so he didn't see his face. He had a dog laying on the floor in front of him. It had a vest that said 'service dog' in black text.

Maybe he could get some rest and try to not get bad jet lag again. Ace relaxed in his seat, leaning back into the cushioned chair.

It was a packed flight, but that wasn't a surprise being so close to Christmas and going from New York to London. The rest of the passengers boarded over a ten minute period.

The flight attendants gave the usual spiel about not smoking, having your tray up, not standing, and how to use the air masks.

Ace ignored all this, like usual.

After the plane took off and was in the air, he tried to get a bit of rest. He shut his eyes and tried not to focus on any thing.

Ace didn't realize he fell asleep after three hours into the flight when he woke up. He need some rest, flights were nice places to take naps, really long naps.

It seemed like he only dozed off for a few minutes, not a couple hours by the time he had awoke. When Ace found consciousness, he wondered what time it was.

There was a child who began crying for a few minutes during the flight, but their parent eventually calmed them. It was only a slight annoyance.

He had a book with crossword puzzles with him in his carryon and stood to get it out of his bag. The green tinted man sat and opened up to a puzzle he was stuck on.

He couldn't think of proper words to fit in the boxes. Ace wasn't always the fastest with puzzles, trivia, or just random words that it wanted him to come up with. While he could be quick witted with certain situations and thoughts, Ace was rather slow with other things. Probably due to his lack of most of a proper education.

The word he got stuck on was 'Business; any matter' and he wasn't sure what the answer was since he thought about it but couldn't connect anything.

The young adult mulled over his cross word for another hour before deciding to look out at all the clouds that were dark blue now since it was darker out.

He eventually zoned out and got lost in his own thoughts as he usually did on these flights.

The trip back to New York was nice as always. Ace had been back and forth many times by now since he wanted to see the gang. They were family to him still and he didn't want to make it seem like he just wanted to leave them the second he grew up and found something else.

He hadn't dated anyone before. A couple of one night stands before, yes, but he was new to actual love. Ace believed what they had was in fact love.

M. was a lovely guy. Really rough around the edges, yet he knew he loved him, even if he didn't say it yet. He had a lot of shit happen and it was understandable to have his was up because Ace was just so determined to break them down.

He soon snapped out of all of it when the flight was announced to be landing soon.

"One more hour," he muttered to himself.

The hour passed by slowly. He looked back at his puzzle and made no further progress. He doodles on the side of the puzzle, just drawing swirls and hatching.

Once the plane landed, Ace took his pen and crossword book, he then standed.

Everyone always tried to get up at once to try and leave the plane. Ace would usually wait another twenty minutes or so before everyone cleared out.

While waiting, a small child pointed at him and tugged on their dad's jacket.

"Dad, look, it's one of those TV people!" she excitedly told her father.

Her dad looked rather embarrassed, given she was pointing out that he was a cartoon.

Ace just shrugged and smiled at him. It wasn't the rudest thing he's heard, it wasn't rude at all. Kids pointed shit out and he was who he was... also it happened often enough.

He left right for the bathroom to take a piss before going out to smoke and catch a cab. Ace never liked using the bathroom in the flight cab. It made him uncomfortable because of how tight it was and it made him worried about what would happen if bad turbulence suddenly happened while he was in there.

He completely forgot to call Murdoc after getting off of the plane because he was just thinking about his cigarette since he felt a little stressed out.

His pee was quick and he was outside as soon as he wanted.

The green skinned man got out there and quickly pulled out a cigarette and lighter to relieve his stress. After his smoke outside, the cold started getting to him. That wasn't a surprise because of the time of year.

He stepped away from the main exit of the airport and went towards where the taxi services, buses, and shuttles were aloud to stop. Ace stepped out near the curb and got one over.

He entered the back seat, pulled this bag into the cab, and finally sat down.

The guy driving asked where to, Ace gave the street and apartment building's address for the guy to drive to.

Ace and the driver didn't talk, sometimes they would, but this time, it was a tad awkward where neither of them speaked and Ace was kind dazing off.

After an unaccounted amount of time of almost drifting off and such, the drive spoke up.

"Oi, you awake?"

That snapped him out of his daze as surprised him a bit, "-Oh, yea-yeah, I'm awake."

"That'll be forty six fifty," he held his hand towards the little window.

"Uh, hold on."

Ace pulled his wallet out of his bag, he took out two twenty pound notes several singles to give the driver.

He handed it to guy and he gave the green skinned man back five pounds and some change.

After opening the door, Ace dragged his bag out behind him and shut the cab's door. He ambled over to the apartment building and entered the lobby that was in disrepair. It wasn't the nicest apartment building, but it was what he could afford.

He used his apartment key instead of buzzing in, which not only worked for the second set of lobby doors, but his mail box.

He decided to check their mail box with a key he kept in his jacket pocket since he was down there.

Inside was some junk mail that was clearly targeting them to make money, a couple of bills that he probably needed to get taken care of right away, and a couple of fliers for different stores around the area. On the bottom, he noticed a paycheck from his old job that he had been waiting for over a month. Why he found it just now confused him since he had Murdoc check earlier in the day, but at least he had it now.

As he looked through the mail with one hand, almost dropping the pile several times, Ace hurried to their apartment which involved going down the stairs and into the building's basement.

The basement was large and had all the old washing and drying machines. They were loud and could be somewhat heard in the apartment.

Ace unlocked his apartment door, leaning against it and once it was unlocked he stumbled forward. Once he caught himself on the floor, he got right back up and pulled his bag into the small kitchen/livingroom.

He sighed and pushed the door shut.

"Shit," Ace laughed. He was tired.

He threw the mail onto the couch and took off his glasses, everything was so dark with them, also he would probably be clunking out once he got to bed.

Maybe Murdoc was in, maybe he wasn't, that didn't matter right now with how utterly exhausted the actor was.

Ace turned the handle and pushed the door open.

Nothing. No sleeping boyfriend or on drugs.

He wasn't there.

There was a piece of paper on the bed; a note.

Ace went to the bed and picked it up.

He read it.

'I'm leaving. I'm working on making another band. I left rent on the counter. Thanks for the good shags.' His name was signed in a flamboyant signature.

Ace didn't know what to think. That was it. Not anything about how he loved him. How he enjoyed their time together. Nope.

He was just a good fuck for a few months. Nothing more. It was over.

And it really hurt.


End file.
